Chapter IV · UNWRITTEN TRADITION AND INSUFFICIENCY OF THE WRITTEN WORD ALONE.

I SHALL next proceed to examine the Romish assertions respecting Unwritten Tradition and the Insufficiency of the Written Word alone.

I. Although the Church of Rome, speaking through the Council of Trent, claims the Written Word of God as a voucher for her doctrines; yet, as if conscious, that, from Scripture ALONE, her peculiarities cannot be established as a part of divine revelation, she asserts: that Unwritten Tradition ought to be had in EQUAL reverence with the Written Word; so that, what cannot be proved from the Written Word, must be received without hesitation, if it be propounded by Unwritten Tradition.

From this assertion it evidently results: that, Without the concurrence of a supplemental Unwritten Tradition, the Written Word or the Holy Bible is defective and insufficient as a rule of faith and practice.

The Holy Synod, say the doctors of the Council of Trent, perceiving, that this faith and discipline are contained, both in the Written Books, and in the Unwritten Traditions which have descended to us from Christ and his Apostles, receives and venerates, after the example of the orthodox Fathers, WITH AN EQUAL AFFECTION AND PIOUS REVERENCE, both all the Books of the Old and New Testaments, and likewise the Traditions themselves, whether appertaining to faith or to morals, as if orally dictated from Christ and the Holy Spirit, and as preserved by continual succession in the Church Catholic. [30]

II. Let us now hear what Scripture says on the topic at present under discussion.

1. The unwritten traditions of the Rabbins, by which they made void the Law of God, claimed to have been delivered to Moses on Mount Sinai by the Lord himself: and their pretended authenticity rested precisely upon the same mode of reasoning, as that employed, for their parallel unwritten traditions, by the Clergy of the Roman Communion. Yet Christ reprobated such vain unhallowed phantasies in language and on principles, which equally apply to the antiscriptural unwritten traditions of the Latin Church.

He answered and said unto them: Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? For God commanded, saying: Honour thy father and thy mother; and: He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death. But ye say: Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother; It is a gift by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; and honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition. [31a]

Now where is the perceptible difference, between the conduct of the Jewish Rabbins, and the conduct of the Romish Clergy?

(1.) The Written Word commanded: that a man should honour his father and mother.

But the Jewish Rabbins made this commandment of none effect by their Unwritten Tradition: that, if a man vowed to dedicate his substance to God, he was not bound to relieve out of it the necessities of his parents.

(2.) The Written Word has prohibited the bowing down before graven images and the invocation of any being save the Deity.

But the Romish Clergy have made this prohibition of none effect by their Unwritten Tradition: that images may be worshipped relatively with the worship due to their prototypes, that dead saints may be justifiably invocated to give us their intercessory assistance, and that, provided only we take care to denominate the worship of the Saints and the Virgin Dulia and Hyperdulia while we rigidly style the worship of the Deity Latria, we may laudably (after the precise manner of the old Pagan idolaters [31b]) kiss and uncover our heads and fall prostrate before their images, duly through each image (again on the exact avowed principle of the same Old Pagan idolaters [31c]) referring to each being represented by such image his own appropriate reverence and adoration. [32a]

2. A similar admonition, against the vanity of following Unwritten Tradition rather than the certainty of the Written Word, is given by the Apostle St. Paul.

As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him; rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware, lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. [32b]

3. The romish pretence of an EQUALLY authoritative Unwritten Tradition plainly involves an assertion of the Insufficiency of the Written Word. But the written Word declares its own Sufficiency. Therefore, on that precise ground, it condemns the romish pretence of an EQUALLY authoritative concurrent Unwritten Tradition.

(1.) Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it: that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you. [32c]

(2.) To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. [32d]

(3.) Though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. [32e]

(4.) From a child, thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God: and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. [33a]

4. The Romish Clergy are wont to tell us, that their scheme of concurrent Unwritten Tradition is recognised and enjoined even by Scripture: because St. Paul speaks of a brother, walking disorderly, and not after the TRADITION received from himself by the Thessalonians; [33b] because the same St. Paul exhorts the same Thessalonians to stand fast and hold the TRADITIONS which they had been taught whether by word or by his epistle; [33c] and because still the same St. Paul praises the Corinthians, for remembering him in all things, and for keeping the TRADITIONS as he delivered to them. [33d]

Respecting this vain plea, which can only mislead the ignorant and the incautious, we readily answer in manner following.

(1.) St. Paul must not be interpreted, so as to contradict both his Lord and himself.

(2.) The Romish Clergy cannot prove, that all the Traditions, mentioned by the Apostle, were unwritten: for some are distinctly specified as taught by a written epistle; and the simple word Tradition itself, which merely denotes any thing handed down or delivered or communicated, has no necessary reference to what is unwritten rather than to what is written.

(3.) It is not known by the Romish Clergy: whether the originally oral unwritten traditions, mentioned by St. Paul, were not finally committed to durable writing in documents, composed subsequently to those epistles in which he mentions them, and afterward added to the sacred canon; so that, what were once unwritten traditions, became ultimately a portion of our present written word: for the plain reader may be usefully taught or reminded, that several portions of the New Testament were written at a later period than the epistles in which St. Paul speaks of Traditions.

(4.) Whensoever the Romish Clergy shall prove the unwritten traditions of their Church to have been received from Christ and his apostles with as much certainty, as the Thessalonians and Corinthians knew what they had personally received from the mouth of St. Paul: we will cheerfully attend to them with all due reverence.

(5.) Both on the principle of our Lord’s own censure of the rabbinical traditions, and likewise on the principle of plain common sense, we cannot embrace oral traditions purporting to be God’s unwritten word; when they are palpably irreconcileable with, and grossly contradictory to, God’s own acknowledged written word.

III. We may now, in the way of historical testimony, go on profitably to hear the ancient Fathers: those identical old orthodox Fathers to wit; whom, in respect to the present question, the doctors of the Council of Trent, as the reader may peradventure recollect, claim as being clearly and indisputably quite their own.

1. Let us first attend to Irenèus in the second century.

(1.) The disposition of our salvation we know not through any other persons, than those by whom the Gospel has come to us: which then, indeed, they themselves orally preached; but which afterward, according to the will of God, they traditionally handed down to us IN THE WRITTEN WORD, as the future basis and column of our faith. [34]

(2.) When the Gnostics are confuted from SCRIPTURE, their answer is: that, By those who are ignorant of UNWRITTEN TRADITION, truth cannot be discovered from THE WRITTEN WORD; for truth was delivered, not (merely) through letters, but through the living voice. [35a]

2. Let us next hear Tertullian in the second and third centuries.

As for Hermogenes, let his shop produce THE WRITTEN WORD. If he be unable to produce THE WRITTEN WORD in substantiation of his tenets; let him dread that scriptural Woe, which is destined to those who either add to it or detract from it. [35b]

3. Let us next hear Hippolytus in the third century.

There is one God, whom we know from no other authority, than THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.—Whatsoever matters, then, THE DIVINE SCRIPTURES declare; these let us learn: and, whatsoever matters they teach; these let us recognise:—not according to our own humour or according to our own mind, neither with any wresting of the things delivered from God; but, even as he himself wished THROUGH THE HOLY SCRIPTURES to shew us, thus let us learn. [35c]

4. Let us next hear Cyprian in the third century.

Whence is that pretended TRADITION? Does it descend from the authority of the Lord and the Gospels: or does it come down from the mandates and letters of the Apostles? God testifies, that those things are to be done, which are WRITTEN.—If, then, any such precept can be found, EITHER IN THE GOSPEL OR IN THE EPISTLES AND ACTS OF THE APOSTLES:—let this divine and holy (written) tradition be observed. [35d]

5. Let us next hear Cyril of Jerusalem in the fourth century.

Respecting the divine and holy mysteries of the faith, not even a tittle ought to be delivered without the authority of THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. Neither ought any thing to be propounded, on the basis of mere credibility, or through the medium of plausible ratiocination. Neither yet repose the slightest confidence in the bare assertions of me your Catechist, unless you shall receive from THE HOLY SCRIPTURES foil demonstration of the matters propounded. For the security of our faith depends, not upon verbal trickery, but upon demonstration from THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. [36a]

6. Let us next hear the great Athanasius in the fourth century.

(1.) The holy and divinely inspired SCRIPTURES are sufficient for the declaration of the truth. [36b]

(2.) Let a person solely learn the matters, which are set forth in THE SCRIPTURES: for the demonstrations, contained in them, are, in order to the settling of this point, quite sufficient and complete. [36c]

(3.) If ye are disciples of the Gospels,—walk according to WHAT IS WRITTEN. But, if you choose to allege any other matters BEYOND WHAT IS WRITTEN: why do you contend against us, WHO WILL NEVER BE PERSUADED EITHER TO HEAR OR TO SPEAK A SINGLE SYLLABLE BEYOND GOD’S WRITTEN WORD? [36d]

(4.) These; namely, the canonical books of Scripture, from which the apocryphal books are carefully excluded by the accurate Father: These are the fountains of salvation; so that he, who thirsts, may drink from the oracles contained in them. In THESE ALONE is the evangelical school of piety. Let no one add to them: and let no one detract from them. [36e]

(5.) It is the part of mere triflers to propound and to speak THE THINGS WHICH ARE NOT WRITTEN. [36f]

(6.) What THE WRITTEN WORD had never revealed, you will never be able to discover. [37a]

7. Let us next hear Basil in the fourth century.

(1.) It is a manifest apostasy from the faith, and a clear proof of arrogance, either to disregard any matter of THE THINGS WHICH ARE WRITTEN, Or to introduce argumentatively any matter of THE THINGS WHICH ARE NOT WRITTEN. [37b]

(2.) THE THINGS WHICH ARE WRITTEN believe: THE THINGS WHICH ARE NOT WRITTEN Seek not after. [37c]

8. Let us next hear Jerome in the fourth and fifth centuries.

(1.) As we deny not THE THINGS WHICH ARE WRITTEN: SO THE THINGS WHICH ARE NOT WRITTEN we reject. We believe, that God was born of a virgin; BECAUSE WE READ IT: we believe not, that Mary was married after her parturition; BECAUSE WE READ IT NOT. [37d]

(2.) Learn, then, in THE DIVINE SCRIPTURES, through which ALONE you can understand the full will of God, that some things are prohibited and that other things are commanded, that some things are granted and that other things are persuaded. [37e]

9. Finally, let us hear Augustine in the fourth and fifth centuries.

Demonstrate, from any one of THE CANONICAL APOSTLES AND PROPHETS, the truth of what Cyprian has written to Jubaianus: and I should then have no room for contradiction. But now, since what you produce is NOT CANONICAL; through the liberty, to which the Lord hath called us, I receive not the decision. [37f]

IV. From the evidence now faithfully laid before him, the prudent inquirer is invited to judge for himself: whether the romish doctrine, of the concurrent EQUAL authority of Unwritten Tradition and the insufficiency of the Written Word alone, be warranted either by Scripture or by the early Fathers.

Meanwhile the following questions may not be altogether unworthy of his attention.

1. Do, or do not, the doctors of the Council of Trent, agreeably to their own formal and distinct profession, follow the example of the old orthodox Fathers, when they decide: that the Written Word of God, and the Unwritten Traditions of the Latin Church, are to be received by the faithful with an EQUAL affection and pious reverence?

2. Do, or do not, the Romish Clergy imitate the Gnostics: who, when they were confuted from Scripture, were accustomed to reply; that, by those who are ignorant of Unwritten Tradition, truth cannot be discovered from the Written Word.

3. Do, or do not, the Romish Clergy copy the example of Cyril of Jerusalem: who declared, that, respecting the faith, NOT A TITTLE ought to be delivered without the authority of the Holy Scriptures; and who exhorted his Catechumens to repose not THE SLIGHTEST CONFIDENCE in his assertions, unless they should receive from the Holy Scriptures full demonstration of the matters propounded?

4. Do, or do not, the Romish Clergy teach, with Athanasius: that, the Scriptures ALONE are sufficient for the declaration of the truth; and that, in the canonical Scriptures ALONE, to the exclusion of the Apocrypha, is the evangelical school of piety?

5. Do, or do not, the Romish Clergy declare, with the same illustrious Father: that they will never be persuaded either to hear or to speak A SINGLE SYLLABLE beyond God’s written word?

6. Do, or do not, the Romish Clergy pronounce, still with the great Athanasius: that it is the part of mere triflers to propound and to speak the things which are not written?

7. Do, or do not, the doctors of the Council of Trent, and after them our present Romish Clergy, take up, and make their own, the ancient pithy distinction of Jerome: The things which are written we acknowledge; the things which are not written we reject?

8. Do, or do not, the Romish Clergy, make a point, with Tertullian, of always requiring the production of proof from the Written Word: and do they, or do they not, allow and maintain, with the same Father; that he, who is unable to produce the Written Word in substantiation of his tenets, but who for that purpose resorts to Unwritten Tradition, may well dread the awful Woe so justly denounced against those who either add to it or detract from it?

9. Finally, in their several estimates of Unwritten Tradition and the Written Word, and in their several modes of conducting those theological controversies which respect the authoritative rule of faith and practice, do the Romish Clergy or the Reformed Clergy approximate most closely to Holy Scripture and to the ancient orthodox Fathers?